


The Blessed

by lilyconrad



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, M/M, Multi, Soulmate AU, obianidala
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 07:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16782601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyconrad/pseuds/lilyconrad
Summary: Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker can see something few others can, a special gift the Force gives only to those with a soulmate: color.





	The Blessed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FromDreamstoEmpires](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FromDreamstoEmpires/gifts).



> For the Star Wars Rare Pair Collection. I hope you enjoy!

Anakin Skywalker is one of the rare and revered Blessed, according to not only Jedi lore but a hundred different religions and cultures across the galaxy.

Upon the age of 16, known as the blossoming of the soul in all faiths, the Trial of the Hidden reveals this. Anakin is brought to a small, dim room in the lowest depths of the Temple, and shown a sacred painting by one of the Blessed priests to divine if he is one of them.

 _What do you see in this painting?_ the man asks through the Force as the candles flicker around them.

Anakin studies it carefully. He knows the paintings are changed from ritual to ritual, and that to speak of them at all to others after the ceremony is blasphemy of the highest order. _I see a spiral,_ he says with hesitation. What does that mean? It is such a plain, boring design it has to mean he is not Blessed, Anakin thinks, that he is just another of the billions who aren’t.

The priest’s face does not change, but he draws another painting from the worn, ancient chest resting to the side of the altar. _What do you see in this one?_

 _A simple drawing of a hand with four fingers_ , Anakin replies with barely hidden disappointment. Being Blessed, knowing that one has a soulmate somewhere in the galaxy, is extremely rare and a momentous event from every story he has ever heard.

 _I should have known I wouldn’t have one_ , he tells himself.

So when the priest sets aside the painting with a smile and holds out his hand, Anakin is too stunned to do anything but look at it.

 _Come, child_ , the man sends through the Force. _Take my hand._

Shocked, Anakin does, watching as the priest covers it with his other one.

 _You are one of us. One of the Blessed_ , the priest intones silently. _Welcome, and may the Force guide you to the bright halo of the one you are meant for._

Life changes in small ways for Anakin after this revelation. He is too young to be a priest, to give the Trial of the Hidden to others, but now he travels on not only Jedi missions but encouraged to search for his soulmate when the chance allows. He is respected and held in awe by all the Padawans in the Temple, his status as one of the Blessed another example of his already exceptional nature.

His master, esteemed Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, is proud of him, and even more so when Anakin finds the one fate has chosen for him a few years later: the intelligent and beautiful senator of Naboo, Padme Amidala Naberrie, glowing in the light that tells him he is hers just as she is his.

But there is a flicker of sadness on Obi-Wan’s impassive face at their wedding, or does Anakin imagine it?

Two beautiful children come along, loved by all at the Temple and Padme’s family, picking things up as quickly as their parents did when they were small. _Mama!_ the little girl cries in the golden light that connects their souls, and Padme smiles and shows her a wave and tap of her hand in the air. _Mama,_ Padme answers as Anakin beams proudly, holding their son in his lap.

Life is perfect, a gentle flow of one day to another, either with his wife and children or out on missions alongside his master.

Until a jarring, sudden and incomprehensible sensation washes over him one day as he is meditating out in the Temple gardens. He has no words for it, and stares at the tree leaves moving in the wind overhead as he tries to place what it could be. _Is it a current in the Force?_ Anakin wonders, hypnotized by the movement of the tree.

Every time the leaves shift, the thing happens again, like a shiver in the Force but outside of his mind. He reaches up to a branch hanging within reach, hesitant, and gives the branch another shake. There is another vibration, for lack of a true word that fits the experience, and Anakin hurries off to find one of the Blessed priests that reside in the Temple.

He is panicked, unable to name what is happening: the same vibrations are creeping in all around him now, strange and impossible to understand. Some of them are pleasant and soft, others rough and grating.

When he finally finds one of the priests, meditating in the hall dedicated to them, Anakin can barely stop himself long enough to bow. _Brother in the Light,_ he begs, out of breath and gesturing wildly. _Help me! Please!_

The priest listens to him with puzzlement that slowly grows to concern.

Anakin waits while the man vanishes into the library set just off the hall, promising to return once he has conferred with the other Blessed clergy. He cannot help but watch the priest’s slippers move across the floor, that unearthly, faint pattern following each of his steps across the marble.

Within an hour, three priests bring him into the ritual chamber once again, no ceremony this time and only raw tension and excitement in the air. Anakin can barely focus, but the sensations around him are becoming a little more predictable and not as frightening. When the head priest lights the candles, there is a flicker beyond the sight of the flame rising to life. When the others open a chest even older than the first one Anakin saw almost five years ago, there is another long, drawn-out vibration that creeps through Anakin’s mind.

The head priest takes a smaller box out of the first and places it on the altar before Anakin. _Have you heard of the Twice-Blessed?_ , he asks in a solemn tone belied by the way his fingers tremble on the lid.

 _Only in legends,_ Anakin replies. _Those with two soulmates, one found first and the other later with some sort of magic. I don’t understand..._

 _This was made by one of them, hundreds of years ago,_ the priest answers, lifting out an ancient piece of what seems to be real paper but keeping it out of sight from Anakin. A small device is below, something like a communicator but without any apparent flash or vibration buttons.

 _What is that?_ Anakin asks, fascinated. _What good would something like that be? What use would it be?_

 _When you become a Priest, you will study the way of this. But for now, please do as I say._ The priest studies the old, yellowed paper in his hand and places his other hand on the altar, palm against the real wood panel of it. _When you sense one of these strange vibrations, tap the altar strongly._ With a deep breath, the old man reaches down and touches a small panel on the device.

Anakin does as he is told, following the vibrations with ease. There is a rhythm to them, a quiet and increasingly complicated one so gentle he almost cannot sense it. But he does, and as he continues to tap along, the head priest stares at the paper before him as if it has caught on fire.

 _Twice-Blessed_ , he murmurs across the light between them. _You are Twice-Blessed._

 _How?_ Anakin whispers.

 _You have a special, sacred ability to know things without sight or touch or the Force,_ the priest explains in awe. _It is called "hearing", and has not happened to anyone in so long few know about it._

This revelation is not shared outside of the circle of the Blessed until Anakin finds his second soulmate, the most pleasant rhythm of all echoing through his heart when his master returns from a long mission a month later.

Obi-Wan stares at him from across the Temple hall, frozen where he stands. Anakin knows he glows in the Force to his master just as Obi-Wan now does to him. Obi-Wan is now able to see as Anakin does, a second Trial of the Hidden confirms.

Anakin and Padme welcome him into their marriage with a happiness even greater than they first wed with. The three of them are bound by love and the Force for the rest of their lives.

And as the years pass, Anakin comes to delight in his new gift, one that allows him to hear everything from the running of their children across the floors of the apartment to the soft sighs of his lovers in the dark of night.

**Author's Note:**

> So being blessed means you can see in color, being twice blessed means you can hear. Everyone in this AU is deaf. If you notice, no one ever speaks out loud. ;)
> 
> (My logic is that even normal people like Padme developed a bit of Force sensitivity to communicate.)


End file.
